


on venus we could find peace

by Anonymous



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst, Child Neglect, Existential Crisis, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Han Jisung | Han & Lee Felix are Twins, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, M/M, Underage Smoking, adolescence sucks and you know it so, brief mention of anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29520786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: No matter what, Hyunjin's hand around Jeongin's wrist never hurt him.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: AGIBBANG FEST





	on venus we could find peace

**Author's Note:**

> written for [AGIBBANG FEST](https://twitter.com/AGIBBANGFEST), prompt #0126.
> 
> (this is a very secret gift to a very _lovely_ person) 
> 
> i swear, it's not as bad as the tags make it sound like...  
> links to the songs that inspired me the most: [Jeongin](https://youtu.be/GqaFPMKfOQM) & [Hyunjin](https://youtu.be/AowKxK_Cfdo) ♡

Someone somewhere, out. 

His back facing the house he spent his whole life in, a house that was filled with desperation, screaming, and the loud noises of everything being thrown in between the four walls. But he got a cigarette out of his mom’s pocket, and a lighter that was almost empty, so maybe it was a good day. 

He pulled the grass with his bare toes, did not even check the weather to pull up a hoodie or to slip in some sneakers. He liked spring, yet it was still cold to be bare feet and in a thin layer of a sleep t-shirt, which was overly washed till the black turned into a boring gray. 

The weather didn’t hurt him though. He was born on the coldest day of February anyway. So, he lit the cigarette between his lips and inhaled along with whatever worries heaving on his chest. 

It was not that his parents were going to come out any soon or spare a glance at his direction to scold him. They grounded him a million times and more - it was useless. They had their own world of miseries and Jeongin was just a stray kid, never knew what the home was. 

"How old are you?" someone else called. 

Jeongin didn't know who it was, they were blocking the sun and it was about a moment for his eyes to adjust. He squinted, his muscles ached at the movement. The cigarette emptied its toxic chemicals everywhere in himself and out himself. 

"Who the fuck are you?" he hissed. He barely recognized the boy from school. 

"Hyunjin? Your neighbor?" Hyunjin the neighbor replied, pointing to another hell of a house behind his back. 

"Okay," Jeongin said, his posture did not even change to something defensive, or something offensive. He didn’t mind people coming and leaving, he had enough of his father’s lovers already. 

Hyunjin was startled a bit, he watched Jeongin mindlessly dragging the cigarette back and savoring the smoke inside as if it was his last one. He squatted down to be at eye level with him. Jeongin immediately squinted again, the sun happily greeted him back. 

Now, Hyunjin was able to see his puffy face, swollen eyes, tears that are dried all over and piled under his chin. 

"How old are you?" he asked again. 

Jeongin scoffed, "Does it matter?" 

"It does when you look like 12 and smoke."

"So what?" Jeongin dragged the cigarette between his lips again and took a long hit, his eyes locked into Hyunjin’s, "are you gonna tell my mom?"

Hyunjin took a moment to ponder around the question. He heard a lot of rumors of that particular house, with three kids and without a peaceful day. Mom was out there working day and night, dad was out there whoring the well-earned money day and night. Something about living in a fairly close neighborhood, fake caring smiles and freshly baked pies served as bonding, played its role pretty well for categorizing the families neatly. 

The lanky boy dropped onto his butt in front of Jeongin, still a safe distance between them he made sure to keep since he did not want to scare him away. A genuine one spread on his face in contrast to the said neighbors’ smiles. Jeongin looked like his first kitten to him, now at age 7 wandering around at home. 

He mumbled a sheepish _no_. 

"Good," Jeongin glanced back and forth, to the grass that was pulled out, to the almost out cigarette, and Hyunjin’s soft features. The boy meant no harm, he somehow decided - his brown pupils lingering on his own crumpled up figure did not alarm anything in his restless veins. 

"‘M fourteen."

"Really?!" Hyunjin said, his absurdly long limbs went all over the floor with the new information’s excitement. He pushed his knees from his chest, some fresh out of the box sneakers he kicked out to both sides of Jeongin. He supported his body with his hands on the half-assed mown grass. Fingers brushed off the wild daisies as he leaned into his palms. 

Jeongin stared blankly at the enthusiasm steaming over the latter, tsked while damping the cig on the muddy surface on his right. Some flowerpots his little brother placed and took care of caught his attention before he heard an attempt of a conversation Hyunjin made. 

"I just turned 15! We’re almost the same age, why don’t we hang out?"

"Because your friends like to get on my nerves," Jeongin hissed between his gritted teeth, not even caring about upsetting Hyunjin or not. The pots just looked so fragile at that moment that he felt anxious over what if his older brother lost his control again, how he would kick and stomp on them. 

Hyunjin hummed in acknowledgment. He was not the one to admit that he witnessed a few scenes where Jeongin was being pushed in the hallway at school. Or where he was scolded by the teacher because he defended himself against some of Hyunjin’s friends. They were just some respected families’ some respected kids. And Hyunjin was not the one that could tell people off or make it stop. But he was the one to apologize. 

So, he did. His sound died through the end, crushed into little Hyunjin pieces out of embarrassment. 

The younger boy took it in and swallowed down. He was not a priest or anything, the apology did not make a difference. God didn’t exist as his prayers were for nothing but his walls to echo. How could a boy next door change anything with that? 

So, he watched the dancing plants in the spring breeze in his brother’s pots, painted by him as well.

"Lovely,” Hyunjin mumbled, as much as his voice was able to come front - the cheerful sparkles of his nature had been hidden underneath, shying away.

Jeongin thought it was the proof of spring, what was lovely, the blooming flowers. Hyunjin thought it was the last crystal drop of a tear trailing down Jeongin’s _lovely_ face.

◌

Jeongin took a moment, his fist hanging in the air to knock on Hwangs’ door. He had been here, in the doorway, before. Maybe a lot more than they hung out in his backyard when the house was quiet. Still, he felt the itchiness crawling up his skin, screaming at him to run away. 

He was sizing up his options, trapped between the swinging screen and closed front door. Returning home was not the best. Not when the last picture stuck in his mind was that his father running down the stairs all dressed up. He chewed on his lip and wished nausea would stop. 

He knew well that he didn’t have to knock, he already had spent enough time for Hyunjin's mothers to believe that he was not kind of a kid to influence his grades in a bad way. He liked that both women were around them sometimes to pass a plate of freshly baked cookies and pat his head briefly. Yet it was not looking like the boy was about to reach the doorknob and welcome himself inside any soon. 

Rambling on the same scenarios, Jeongin didn't realize that Hyunjin swung open the door with a goofy smile and crescents instead of eyes.

The first thing Jeongin felt drawn into was the sight of Hyunjin’s t-shirt that has a cartoon character printed and cat hair stuck on. The bright colors and patterns he liked were never good enough to disguise his cat's mess. Thankfully, Jeongin didn't develop a cat allergy and it was safe to catch Hyunjin's heartbeats when the older hugged him against his wish. 

"Mom saw you from the kitchen!" he giggled.

Sometimes, it was just tiring Jeongin that the lanky boy was hovering him so often. And, again, sometimes pushing his luck to hang out when he had no intention to leave his room. He was lively compared to Jeongin. A vivid color, the first ray of the sun between the blinders that you hate, or the funny feeling of the pop rocks in your mouth.

Sometimes, Jeongin liked to be woken up by the sun. 

Weirdly, he didn't understand the excitement Hyunjin hid so poorly when they were together. He knew he was a ghost mostly. He was usually forgotten between the harsh words and hostile stares at home, like a lot of times back then he was forgotten at the schoolyard waiting for at least one of his parents to come to pick him up. Hyunjin's friends also made sure that his luck was the same at school. Now it was so weird that a boy like Hyunjin tugged on his sleeves and pulled him upstairs to his room.

In the end, Jeongin didn't understand a lot of things. He didn't understand Biology and how it was okay for Hyunjin to eat in his bed. He didn't catch the name of the boy with a face full of freckles in the noisy classroom and how his twin had a completely different appearance. He didn't know how to play video games that Hyunjin was so passionate about. He couldn't figure out why his father never checked the fridge and why his older brother was usually away from home. He didn't understand why it was so important to Hyunjin that he _had to_ quit stealing cigarettes from his mother.

There he was, standing in the middle of Hyunjin's room, still, their hands tangled up together. A new habit along with the old one, where Hyunjin liked to drag him to whatever destination he wished to go. Even if Jeongin wanted to tell him off, circle his way out, and drown in his uncertainty of questions like who he was and where he was headed to, he let it happen. He was so left out of his own life that he wouldn’t mind being pulled into the center of whatever. 

And so, no matter what, Hyunjin's hand around his wrist never hurt him. 

The room got a little bit of everything that would make Jeongin think they belonged to Hyunjin if it was not his room anyway. The animated movie posters were all over, a few polaroids and step-by-step Youtube tutorial sketches stuck on the wall accompanying them. The bed had enough space for two Hyunjins and his cat. One desk was crushed with things that kept his lips soft and glossy and face shiny, a few tubes of paint and, ironically, empty bag of chips. Another desk was for school, a bit skewed to its right, but still was strong enough to handle an adolescent with imbalanced limbs and clumsy words.

"Make yourself at home," he said while pulling a pile of dirty clothes off of his bed and dunking on his desk, burying a thin laptop and a book he checked from the library and forgot to turn it back on time. A lot of copies of homework, a few markers, a cat toy that was too eye-catching... They were all gone when Hyunjin closed his closet door with a sigh.

Jeongin felt the same way when he shut the door behind himself while his little brother was home alone, head dug in the schoolwork. Worry was not his, he told himself. His dad should've thought better.

Thus, he carefully sat down on the bed and waited for the other to plug the game console and set everything ready. He slid his phone out of his pocket to see some texts. Nobody really needed anything, but his only other acquaintance from school shot a quick question about if they were still a group for the term paper.

"Oh, are you friends with Felix?" Hyunjin peeked at his phone with a sweet smile.

The younger backed off a bit to get his personal space back. "Same class," he briefly explained, not going in further detail since he did not have much information about the latter either. 

"His twin is my best friend!" Jeongin saw his dimples getting deeper while a claw hair clip was slipping down on his newly dyed soft pink hair. 

Hyunjin quickly pinched the edges of the small clip and brushed his shoulder-cut hair with his fingertips to put it back. Jeongin felt his face was burning, stomach upset.

"Oh," he was able to voice out, a controller was placed in his hand. 

Instead of responding, Hyunjin hopped onto his bed next to him, lying down on his stomach, and started the game. 

Watching his pink locks brushing his cheeks, Jeongin sensed that his shoulders, which were spiked up to his ears with the mention of another friend, were getting loose.

It had been only a few months of being around Hwang Hyunjin, yet Jeongin felt what he had never experienced, something lurking on the bottom of his stomach slyly. So, he scooted closer to the pink-haired boy, a little, maybe a little more than his personal space would allow it. He played with one of the thumbsticks of the controller and wondered if the other realized their stances were closer. But Hyunjin was already absorbed into the virtual world he had been wasting hours on.

"Is his twin... your closest?" he didn't avert his gaze on the TV screen. Panic easily spread on his cheeks as the blush, a darker shade of pink than Hyunjin's locks.

"Hmm, maybe," Hyunjin said mindlessly, his tongue stuck out as an attempt to concentrate on the game, "But Jisung has a twin brother, you know, I can't top that. I like being around him though, he plays this game like insane!"

"I," Jeongin blew a few strands of his hair itching his nose out of the way, "I like being around you, too," whispered more to himself than the other. 

Hyunjin briefly checked him behind his shoulder, just enough time to let Jeongin pass him on the race, "Is your hair bothering you? If you want, Mama can style it. She cut and helped me to dye mine."

And Jeongin let Hyunjin prickle his heart in a way he did not understand at that moment. He knew something felt different, too intense for him to ignore. His heart felt caged. But he didn't understand what to call it. 

**◌**

A few blocks away from where he neighbored a strawberry milkshake haired boy, in a house filled with teenagers who didn't even take a moment to glance in his direction. Hyunjin was lost after the birthday cake was shared like it was the hallway of their school on a Monday. On top of everything, Jeongin didn't take a cigarette with him, since Hyunjin dramatically pulled the neck of his hoodie up to his nose every time the smoke floated in the air.

But now he was somewhere else, maybe pulling Jisung for the hundredth hug of the day, wishing him the happiest birthday. And Jeongin felt anxious. 

He had two novels wrapped up as separate gifts haphazardly at the last minute, weighing a ton under his arm. So, he placed the gifts, with little name tags to specify who they were from, on the table and headed into the kitchen to exit from the back door.

Jeongin didn't think of himself as a party-goer or someone that does not consider the consequences of going out of his comfort zone. The twins were not his friends exactly - yet Felix's small hand circling his arm and squeezing it to fish out the answer yes meant the opposite, just Jeongin was not the brightest when it came to the friendships. He would scowl and watch his bitten fingernails at this comment, but Hyunjin had prepared him by repeating that a lot of times, often followed by a chuckle. So, he didn't get himself to refuse the invitation.

At least not at that moment when the freckled boy, who had the stars instead of eyes, was babbling about the whole event next month, in the middle of Maths class. He had a lot of time to forget it or to come up with a lie. Then it was impossible to stay in his room, door locked and music on, when Hyunjin told that he was not going to leave his side throughout the day. Even if Jeongin didn't expect his stomach to feel light, it did with Hyunjin's smile. Thus, he walked down the streets for 20 minutes in a new pair of jeans, Hyunjin's long steps cutting their way shorter.

They called them the Sunshine Twins. Jeongin thought it was stupid for 15-year-olds. They had two cakes, not so identically decorated as in the way they were out of their shared womb. It was also good, having the warmest welcome from Felix and chewing on homemade chocolate cake. It was not so good, being at a house full of unfamiliar faces.

 _Crowded_ was the keyword that was echoing in his head. He saw his hands trembling and ignored his heart throbbing in his ears, cold sweat was ready to run down. The voices in the house fainted as he reached the door.

With him or without him, Jeongin _had to_ leave.

The September breeze greeted him once he was in the middle of a crosswalk a few houses down from the twins’, again. Jeongin thought twins were lucky to be born in such a good season. His mother must have been terrified when they had to hit the road during a snowstorm.

He put his hands in his pockets and stretched his back to see the sky. No rushing cars were around. It was almost like the world had put a big yellow star on their calendar for the twins’ birthday party. So everything took a break.

His shoulder made a funny pop sound. Jeongin yawned, unsynchronized to his tense body. He let his arms go numb at each side and stopped stretching.

Even the season had a sweet smell, he thought. Fresh air had an effect, sprinkles of freedom. He wished to scream into the void of the empty street.

"Innie!"

Jeongin knew Hyunjin was kind of a person to befriend anyone that smiled at him. He was that easy to swing their arms together, laugh loudly at their joke to get the one to think they were the funniest among the group.

"Why did you leave? We are going to the coast."

And Hyunjin was always under the spotlight. No one could miss a boy with pink hair full of giggles, even in a room with a thousand.

"Are you okay, Innie?"

Jeongin almost felt guilty for being a friend of Hyunjin. He didn't even smile the first time they met. But Hyunjin caught his shaky hands with his own and brushed his thumbs on them.

"You're cold! Silly, you should've taken a jacket with you as I told you."

And Jeongin couldn't find the strength in his body to escape. He could leave many places: his family house, the class making the loudest noise ever, the library with no voice to distract his mean mind, the twins' birthday party, the land phone that was not properly placed on its receiver...

The tone after each call played in his mind. Only Hyunjin called when his mothers restricted the amount of time he spent on his mobile phone. He could never leave Hyunjin. He was nice to him.

Maybe Hyunjin was too nice.

"Sorry," he spoke finally. His voice sounded more lost than he had been. "I think I should go back."

"But you haven't!" Hyunjin beamed, his hands didn't retreat from his.

"Hyunjin," he mumbled, the clouds felt closer than a plane's distant voice, "Why are you friends with me?"

"Because I like you."

Simple. 

Jeongin never talked with simple words, was afraid to wreck a wall down, or two. He didn't talk as much as the older, either. Were words that undemanding to form a conversation? Why was his family afraid of words when Hyunjin had them all memorized in the most effortless way?

So, he missed Hyunjin's attempt to hide the reddish tint on his face with his long strands.

"But," he watched the tips of their sneakers, "I don't like your friends and the crowds," and Hyunjin’s were not even white anymore. 

"It's okay, we can go somewhere else together."

Then Jeongin looked up, an oblivious face of someone somewhere, out. Hyunjin knew his friend was not the brightest. Yet he didn’t let Jeongin’s hands slip away and Jeongin saw what was lovely for the first time that day. 

It was not the first flare of the streetlights in that afternoon, washed-out stripes of the crosswalk, daisies in the lawns, or Felix’s hand in the air waving a goodbye to both. It was Hyunjin. And Hyunjin was lovely.

**◌**

"Can we go stargazing tonight?" was a new question Hyunjin liked to ask more so often. 

Before, it was only the hushed midnight phone calls, "I had a bad dream" texts and sneaking into the rooms - Jeongin crack opening the back door and letting the older tiptoe to his room. Hyunjin admired everything he had, even if it was just a half-heartedly furnished IKEA bedroom with a tall plant his brother gifted him on his 15th birthday, dust sticking on its leaves.

It also might have been his favorite question to answer. A little gathering with no worries, no yelling, and no friends of Hyunjin. Jeongin never knew how fast he did nod in response when he was about to drag himself to the house after they jumped off from the school bus. His boots always got a bit heavier as their day together ended.

As he passed the kitchen with an apple in his hand, he was still thinking about the night he was going to spend in the passenger seat of Hyunjin's car. And the sunroof displaying a framed picture of the stars. And how that question was definitely better than the one Felix asked with a pair of innocent eyes, in contrast to his Cheshire grin.

The freckled boy had him in the corner of the gym one day, trapped, even though Jeongin could be out of his prison of eyes with a little push on the shoulder. 

Did he like Hyunjin? Yes, of course, he did. And Hyunjin liked him, too. But, no, did he _like_ Hyunjin? Like, in the way Felix liked Danny Phantom during 2nd grade to have a whole stationery set of him or, more recently, the crush he had on his university student tutor that flourished his Maths grades, Chris. 

He was not under the intense stare of his noisy classmate suddenly but locked up in his own mind. The gym was not necessarily cold to dry his sweat, but he felt all the drops absorbed back by his body. It was more than a click for Jeongin (more to his fear, as far as he could go back in time, he had been feeling the same about the latter since Felix's birthday, as they ditched the ice cream at the coast to swing in the park till Hyunjin's curfew), it was the big electric handle in the entire factory that was switched on at 7 in the morning.

Then, Hyunjin came into his vision, two bottles of water in one hand, before he could pass through the locker room doors. So, he ran to the best option he had that day: burying the thought in-between the wrinkles of his brain.

Almost everything was related to Hyunjin for Jeongin from then. His favorite show to rewatch and laugh, the brushed off dust on the plant, a spare hair tie around his wrist, the creak on the floor after midnight, a photo album first page with a fallen cat whisker followed by the mini polaroids taken by Hyunjin as a gift, next class’ notes marked with a soft pink pen...

Even the color pink was stalled and Jeongin had no clue.

He thought Hyunjin was there to be admired like everyone wanted to be friends with him. And that he was just lucky to be a neighbor, so, naturally he wanted to be friends with the younger. 

Surely, the hand around his wrist and long arms on his shoulders didn't mean anything more than the friendliness. Or the time Hyunjin was crying head on his lap because his cat got sick, or Hyunjin kissing his cheek on his birthday as an apology because the snow globe he had for his birthday dropped and now there was only glass and glittery water behind. 

He told Felix the friendship was meant to be at some point.

Felix joked he was blind. 

And that was not his fault 'entirely', Felix reassured, Hyunjin was a different kind of guilty, too.

Months later, Jeongin found himself back again in the same scenario, where the older's car parked in front of the retail store downtown. The apple he had was gone so long, his head just hollowed out as the fluorescent lights of the store fell on Hyunjin’s features. So, when Hyunjin tossed a pack of chips to his side in the car after he had a banter with the cashier and click-clacked his soda can, he just watched. 

Soon, the fuzzy drinks were forgotten in the cup holders to turn into canned water filled with sugar rush.

"Do you know what's sad?" the older leaned back on his seat, hands off from the wheel. His eyes followed the dimmed stars, "I can become anything my moms expect me to, but I can't be one of them."

"Them?" Jeongin asked with a handful of chips ready to be dunked down his throat.

"You know, the stars?"

"What if you were already one?" he responded once again, the chips getting mushy in his mouth, and thoughts were not really organized or revised.

"Cringe," Hyunjin giggled, his tie collecting the pink hair was getting loose. "Do you think I had a life as a star?"

According to their routine, Jeongin shimmied a little in the passenger's seat to open the glove compartment, "Well, I mean," and he was so glad the night covered his blush for him, "why not?"

Tissues were shared to get rid of greasiness on their fingers. Both of the front seats were slightly leaning the back, so they could see the sky from the sunroof. 

Some songs played in the background softly as Hyunjin kept talking about the future. He didn't think much of it but took a sip from the warm coke anyway. Jeongin counted the discount on chips. He remembered an assignment due on Monday. His hand reached for Hyunjin's when the older chose a star for himself.

Hyunjin smiled, interlocking their now clean fingers, "What do you wanna do in the future?"

Some questions were Jeongin's favorites, and some of them were hard and to be ignored. And Hyunjin was always full of questions. He asked how he was doing each day, what he ate last night, if the show was fun, if his homework was going okay, if his brother was well... 

Sometimes, Jeongin didn't even understand the question at all. Why did he choose orange juice over apple? Why did the Earth spin around the Sun? Why did they only strive for happiness out of all emotions? What was bad about him crying when he wanted to?

At that moment, Jeongin had a question, too.

What if he was the one to steal a kiss when the snow globe was broken?

"I don't know," he muttered under his breath.

Hyunjin hummed and the rustle of chips bag cut the radio. 

He was patient with everything related to the younger. It was fine if Jeongin forgot to dust the leaves regularly or his assignment due on Monday, and if he was slow at figuring out his own feelings. Hyunjin was a forgetful type to step on the same spot of the creaking floor after all his visits too. 

They laughed when Jeongin sang along with the radio, a snippet of a song that was too popular for their taste. The store was almost closing, the last light of the night. Jeongin wanted to wipe off his clammy hand on his jeans but Hyunjin extended their tangled ones out of the roof, pointing at another star next to his for Jeongin.

In the end, another Friday was expiring. They were under the stars with worries for tomorrow and tissues dumped next to their shoes.

◌

_One._

Jeongin couldn’t find the same stars through his window after Hyunjin picked them. They were supposed to be distinctive, somewhere in the universe they had no idea about. And they were supposed to be reserved only for them because Hyunjin chose them among countless others, right? Yet, to Jeongin, every star looked alike.

The notebooks telling them the unknown about outer space were useless when they felt like one of the many dots, an ant rolling down the anthill, lying down in the backyard. 

Daisies were not good for Hyunjin's allergy. He had a presentation, his hands shook leaving Jeongin's to get on the bus for school. Jeongin's mind wandered from his mother's jacket left alone on the coat hanger by the door to the gathering clouds. His brother did not apologize.

Sometimes, Hyunjin telling Jeongin it was going to be alright and that they were going to be out of outer space was useless, too.

That was when he had a second cigarette for the first time in a while and skipped a school day. No teacher would mind a day. Or his parents ordering him to throw the trash out and nothing else, on a Wednesday.

Hyunjin was not around. The wind smoked instead of him. He cried, livid yet violet bruises inflicting a deeper wound than the action. The cig didn't make the day any better. He wasn't hoping it would.

He felt almost the same when the other found him crumpled up down on the floor. But something inside nudged him and got rid of the dark clouds of thoughts. He was hoping to get better. Because Hyunjin was around.

_Two._

Venus was Hyunjin's favorite. Jeongin didn't know where the planet was at night, the sunroof was limited. They had no place to go other than the store, and some days a drive-through. Hyunjin opened up a box of cookies his mother baked for Jeongin. The shackles of the doubts and concerns would bang behind their ears if they suited the time to listen to their families better. But their future was not limited.

"I know," he mumbled into the summer night, his back hitting the passenger’s seat again, "I wanna be with you."

And the day had Venus better. Their conversations had the same taste of Venus showing itself during the day. Clear and far away. Nights never permit whispers the sought freedom. The secrets were shared on the older’s bed, more space was left for the cat. 

"We leave here together," sounded more of an empty promise to Jeongin. He wouldn't jump to hit the glass ceiling. Although the glass was not there anymore.

He didn't dare to say anything, Hyunjin sealed the promise with their pinkies and a smile.

_Three._

Jeongin had decided that he liked the older in the way Felix had a crush on his tutor.

"I'll always be a year late," he said tossing and turning under the blankets. A year late to Hyunjin's pace of living.

Hyunjin watched his back, "I can wait," then the side of the younger's face.

Moon didn't care about a pair of teenagers in a bed with a snoring cat between their legs, in a car that was aged with the heavy smell of fast food and snacks, or on the mown grass with wild daisies and packages of candies. Venus was hidden in the constellations. The theme song of the video game was fading as Jeongin turned to face Hyunjin entirely. 

"The snow globe," he started, ignoring Hyunjin's eyelids fluttering at the sudden mention of his now nonexistent present.

"What about it?"

"I would break the snow globe to get a chance to kiss you, too."

The older giggled, the fading pink strands rustling on the pillow under the moonlight, "You don’t want to collect broken glass, believe me."

Jeongin didn’t care about the house that had forgotten about his affliction of existence - and the out of outer space doing the same. Future would wait for another Friday and the world must have been taking another break. The grass could be buried in the snow and the weather bizarre when his mother was on the way. He was just glad to be born to share that moment. 

"But I do. I like you." 

Time was several light minutes for Venus, waiting somewhere for them, yet it was shortened to a blink of an eye between their lips when Hyunjin came a little closer.

Their lips brushed at the same time, followed by a simple kiss spreading like a virus and dissolving into their cells.

"I like you, too."

Jeongin knew Hyunjin was sincere in contrast to perfectly served pies.

Hyunjin smiled, lovely, his hand found Jeongin’s with ease, warm. 

So, he wanted to believe Hyunjin would keep the promise. 

**Author's Note:**

> for the record, Felix’s crush is one-sided
> 
> i'd love to hear from you, your thoughts and feelings. kudos & comments are much appreciated!


End file.
